THIS weekend sees the first birthday of a radio station that is old beyond its years.

There will be two parties for Kane FM which began life as a pirate station until, in 2010, it was granted a five year community licence before it began broadcasting legitimately last year.

Volunteer fundraiser Jenniann Davies said: “It was a pirate radio station 10 years ago and it took that length of time to get the money together.

“It’s been a huge, long journey even getting the licence and we are still really pushing to get more money.

“We aim to do a lot of work in the community for young people not engaged in other activities.”

The station has a community ethos provides opportunities to local DJs who might otherwise struggle to break into radio. Until recently the station was run entirely by volunteers.

“We now have raised enough money to pay a station manager, even though it’s part time – one of our volunteers was out of work and we’ve been able to pay him.

“Until this it has been entirely volunteers and until now we have just been trying to make enough money to stay on air.

“I can see us in the long term being able to give more paid work.”

More than 100 people have volunteered at the station over the year, many of them unemployed. Volunteering allows them to develop their skills and some have since found work in the industry.

Mrs Davies said that in the next year they hope to go further: “The aim for the next year is to start working with more young people, not just those we have now, to create a platform for the artist and for young people.

“If you think back Kiss started up being a pirate station and then went commercial. But we have no intention of going commercial – we are all about community.

“We want to bridge the gap by engaging people with the arts and DJing is an art.

“Hopefully by doing that we can redirect them into other things.”

There is a broad musical policy on the channel with one specific caveat: “The policy is no Top 40, that’s part of our OFCOM licence. It’s mostly bass music from reggae to drum and bass to house, but we play anything.

“This is a ‘breath of fresh air’ to the music scene that is so dominated by play lists and popularity contests.”

She added that there is room for several radio stations in the area and that they need not be seen as rivals.

“Eagle is nothing like us as we are not for profit. We don’t have the same audiences so it’s not competition it’s just different.”

Now the aim is to secure further funding to enable the refurbishment of the studio so that the station can grow even further.

The station has been kept afloat by lottery funds, Comic Relief and corporate sponsorship as well as donations from supporters and listeners.

Financial stability has also been helped by a growing advertising base.

On Friday October 26 there will be simultaneous birthday celebrations with house music and electronica at the Slug & Lettuce and drum & bass and dubstep at Bar Med.